


The Most Important Deal

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Animal Death, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-05
Updated: 2015-05-05
Packaged: 2019-09-29 21:09:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17210993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Crutchie finds a sick kitten and tries to nurse it back to health, without much success.





	The Most Important Deal

There was a bush up against the wall at the back of the Duane Street lodging house. It’d always been there, a sad, dusty sort of thing, sprouting forlornly out of the pavement where no plant ought to grow. It barely had leaves, but about a week ago, it had grown something even better: kittens. There were four of them, to be exact, all jet black except for the runt of the littler, with its little white feet and little white nose. The mama cat was as ragged and skeletal as the bush that hid her, but Crutchie didn’t mind much. He visited the kitten bush every day, delighting in the little bundles of fur that made it their home.

On the eighth day after the kittens’ appearance, Crutchie went to the bush after work, just like he always did. It hadn’t been a good day. For one thing, it was about ninety-eight degrees outside. For another, a bigger kid had hit Crutchie in he face and stolen his last five papes. Crutchie didn’t need to look in the mirror to know that a sunburn was crawling up his face and neck, and that his right eye was bruised and swollen. It didn’t make no sense, smacking a guy around for less than a nickel’s worth of merchandise. Cats, Crutchie told himself, would never do a thing like that. They might play fight, sure, but then they were just like the kids at the lodge, who loved to rough house but would never truly hurt their fellows. Cats and kittens were soft and good, and Crutchie intended to pass an hour in their company and get his fill of them, before going off to soldier through the rest of his day.

As Crutchie approached the bush, he heard the sweet, familiar chirps and mews. The babies were all nestled up to their mother, kneading their tiny paws into her belly as they ate their supper. All that was, except one; the runt, with his patches of white, was missing.

He couldn’t have gotten far, Crutchie reasoned. Probably he’d gone to explore. Crutchie admired that in a cat. Sure the kitten was small, and sure his eyes hadn’t opened yet, but he had spunk. The smallest people were often the bravest. Crutchie had been the runt of his own litter, and he liked to think of himself as brave. He was a good businessman, after all, and he’d survived more punches and scrapes than he could count. That kitten was going to grow up all right, and that was all the more reason for Crutchie to help him out now. Maybe if Crutchie found him and brought him back to his ma, the kitten would remember Crutchie’s kindness and repay it someday.

Crutchie stood very still, trying to listen for any mewing that might be coming from a different direction. He soon found the missing kitten sprawled out on the hot pavement, and carried him back to his mother.

“There ya go Mrs. Cat. Here’s your baby, safe and sound. You better watch out for this here scamp. He’s a born trouble maker if ever I seen one.”

The cat gave Crutchie what he could only assume was a grateful look, before picking the runt up by the scruff of his neck, and carrying him back to the spot on the pavement, and then going back to her other babies. Crutchie frowned, and returned the runt to its mother, only to have the cat do the same thing again. This was repeated a full five times, and on the sixth the mother cat looked up at Crutchie and hissed before he could drop his bundle.

“Don’t ya want your own baby?” Crutchie asked, indignant on the kitten’s behalf. He looked at the kitten in his hands. It seemed quieter than the others, and green goo was dripping from its nose, like maybe it had a cold or something. A horrible thought occurred to Crutchie… What if the mama cat didn’t want it anymore because it was sick? The longer Crutchie thought about it, the more he realized it had to be true, and the more disgusted he became.

“Some mother you turned out to be,” Crutchie muttered, tucking the kitten into his vest. “Well that’s fine, ‘cause me and Crutchie Junior? We don’t need you.”

——-

Back at the lodging house, the other boys were all crowded around Crutchie’s bunk, pushing to get a look at the kitten. The newsies weren’t really allowed to have pets, but this here was a matter of life and death, as the boys all understood. Nobody was going to snitch on Crutchie.

“You think he’d eat an apple?” Romeo asked.

“I got some licorice,” Ike offered.

Crutchie shook his head. They’d already tried things like that. They’d even tried giving him a few scraps of ham from super. “He needs milk,” Crutchie said sadly. The boys shuffled where they stood, faces downcast. Not a single one of them had any milk on hand, and most of them couldn’t exactly spare a whole three cents to go and get some.

“You know,” said Race, “sometimes mama animals get rid of their kids for a reason. Y’know, if there’s somethin’ wrong with…”

Crutchie cuddled his kitten closer against his body. It was very quiet now, not mewing at all, but wheezing a little.

“Some mothers don’t deserve to be called mothers,” Specs said, and a few of the other kids nodded. The kitten was hardly the only one in the room who’d been unceremoniously gotten rid of by those who were supposed to take care of them.

“And where the hell’s the daddy cat, huh?” Romeo spat out. “Off being a deadbeat, that’s where.”

“If I see the daddy cat I’ll soak his whiskers,” muttered one of the boys in the back of the crowd.

“Hey,” said Jack. “Crutchie here ain’t askin’ you to beat up animals on his behalf. It’s just a shame that some humans go around actin’ like animals. We just gotta prove we’se better than that, and get this kitten some milk. So, who’s with me?”

Crutchie put in a penny right away, as did Jack. Specs and Romeo reluctantly dug in their pockets, and reached out in unison with their own change. Romeo laughed and smacked Specs on the back, and Jack took both pennies.

“The rest of you hold tight. I’ll be back with milk before you know it.” Jack squeezed Crutchie’s shoulder, pocketed the money, and then bounded out the door. Crutchie stroked the kitten’s fur, and waited.

——-

The night dragged on, and slowly the boys lost interest in Crutchie and his kitten. Soon it was just Crutchie and Jack, lying next to each other in Crutchie’s bed, while the other kids snored around them. The kitten was wheezing away on Crutchie’s chest, but even that wasn’t regular anymore. Every so often Crutchie dipped his fingers in the milk, and used it to moisten the kitten’s lips. There was nothing else he could do. The kitten wouldn’t even drink it.

“That cat’s lucky, ya know,” Jack said in Crutchie’s ear, a little bit past midnight

“Lucky?” Crutchie scoffed. “It’s practically dead.”

“Yeah… Yeah… well at least it’s nice and warm, and it’s gonna go out with the taste of fresh milk on its tongue. You done good, Crutch. Better than anyone else could’ve.”

“You’d do the same,” Crutchie pointed out.

“Probably, yeah. That why we’se friends, you and me. Hey Crutchie? I know this is sad and all, but promise me you’ll always be the type of guy who does things like this.”

“Only if you promise to always be the type of guy who stands by me when I does things like this.”

“It’s a deal.”

Crutchie leaned into Jack. He liked the deal he’d made, even if it might mean letting his heart break in two from time to time. Maybe not everybody and everything could be saved, but Crutchie would rather be the one who tried than the one who gave up.


End file.
